{"id":322521,"date":"2026-01-19T14:27:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T06:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=322521"},"modified":"2026-01-19T14:27:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T06:27:53","slug":"south-africa-kruger-national-park-relief-fund-to-help-rebuild-popular-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=322521","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: Kruger National Park relief fund to help rebuild popular park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

PRETORIA, Jan 19 (NNN-SANEWS) — Government has announced the establishment of the Kruger Relief Fund to assist efforts to rebuild the Kruger National Park after heavy rainfall damaged the popular tourist destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limpopo and Mpumalanga \u2013 where the park is situated \u2013 have been battered by persistent rainfall and subsequent flooding over the past week with loss of life and infrastructure damage reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am pleased to announce that SANParks have committed to establishing the Kruger Relief Fund to help with rebuilding efforts, emergency supplies and any other necessities,\u201d Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Willie Aucamp, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fund will be managed and audited by two independent auditing firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order to start to rebuild the Kruger National Park, we will need money and we have decided to create a Kruger Relief Fund. The fund will be formed by independent auditors\u2026that will manage that fund. We will, in time over the next week, give more information on that fund.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister called for donations from the public to assist in rebuilding efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough we do not have an estimate of the total amount of damage that it will cost to repair, it will be extremely high. The damage in Kruger is extensive and we are going to plead with everybody out there\u2026that would like to contribute to getting Kruger National Park back to where it was before these floods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also appeal to corporate people and people in nature conservation to make donations so that we can get it back to standard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister visited the park on Saturday where he spent time assessing the damage and engaging with various stakeholders, including SANParks leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He praised the park for taking a \u201csafety first\u201d approach after it prohibited day visits in response to the heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we have witnessed major disruptions and damage owing to the heavy rains in Mpumalanga and Limpopo over the last few days, what has been even more incredible to witness has been the well-planned and executed response from the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur early warning systems meant that the emergency teams could act timeously to evacuate staff and guests in a coordinated manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are grateful that no loss of lives has been recorded and evacuations have progressed smoothly, and I once again extend my gratitude to the park\u2019s management team and emergency services for their swift response,\u201d Aucamp said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister commended the team for applying a safety-first, human-centric approach despite facing massive disruptions to operations and infrastructure \u2013 including road and gate closures, electricity outages and interruptions to other basic services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SANParks has confirmed that day visits remain prohibited until further notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also restrictions at several gates around the park, and access is limited to essential delivery vehicles, airport transfers with valid flight tickets, officials and guests with confirmed accommodation bookings at Berg n Dal, Skukuza, and Pretoriuskop. — NNN-SA<\/strong>NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRETORIA, Jan 19 (NNN-SANEWS) — Government has announced the establishment of the Kruger Relief Fund to assist efforts to rebuild the Kruger National Park after heavy rainfall damaged the popular tourist destination. Limpopo and Mpumalanga \u2013 where the park is situated \u2013 have been battered by persistent rainfall and subsequent flooding over the past week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":322522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322521"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322523,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322521\/revisions\/322523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/322522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}